‘Roseanne’ Cancelled By ABC After ‘Repugnant’ Racist Tweet
ABC announced on Tuesday it will immediately cancel the show “Roseanne,” following a racist tweet from the sitcom’s star, Roseanne Barr.
“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey said in a statement.
Barr, who is Jewish, wrote a tweet saying that Obama-era White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, who is African-American, was descended from apes.
“Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” she wrote.
The show, which was a critical and commercial hit in the 1990s and was revived earlier this year, was the “highest rated and most watched series of the broadcast season,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
But ABC was also criticized for giving a platform to Barr, an outspoken conservative who has a history of making racially inflammatory statements and spreading conspiracy theories.
Contact Haley Cohen at [email protected]
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
